Progress Update

Well the whole point of writing a book is to finish it and I’m proud to report that I’m close!

….Well, closer than I was yesterday.

Turns out writing was the easy part!

You see, dear reader, when I was a bright-eyed youth unknowingly standing upon the precipice to the cold, featureless void that turned out to be March of 2020 I decided to send out the first round of chapters to my first ever round of beta readers. Ignoring the choice line “beware the ides of March” (because doing so worked out so well for Caesar I thought I’d give it a go) I anticipated being done with round one of beta by approximately the end of June 2020 and round two by no later than January 2021.

As it turns out, however, 2020 was, let us say, unique in its attempt to shatter our collective consciousness as a species and thus I find myself only now getting to the end of the first round of beta….for the most part.

But, hey, it is what it is, right? If 2020 taught me anything it’s that there’s no use crying over spilled milk- not because of any zen acceptance of the state of the world, mind you, but because in 2020 the milk was probably going to have asbestos in it or some shit and you might as well just go grab a towel.

So have all my Round One betas returned their reviews? No.

Have 90% of them? Yes (some even re-reading to give an even more in depth analysis god bless their charitable souls)

I sit now, dear reader, in the odd position of weighing further round(s) of beta or simply evaluating the feedback I’ve received and going in on a professional edit. I chose great R1 betas (my Alphas, really) and they gave me great comments on what worked and what needed tweaking.

Turns out spending 8 months editing the shit out of a manuscript tends to streamline the reading experience somewhat.

Who knew?

Regardless it seems absurd to not go through at least one more round before beginning the oh so fun (and oh so expensive) process of going through a professional edit.

And, while waiting for them to finish their reviews I kinda sorta maybe started on the sequel….whoops.

So, yes, dear reader, that’s where I’m at as of today: going through feedback, evaluating what changes need to be made, thinking about whether to do another round (or more) of beta— and trying to figure out where in the hell I’m going to find them if I do (seriously, GoodReads sounds like a great option but unless you’re writing smut you’re not likely to have many takers. That’s no joke and I wish I was kidding).

If you have any idea on where I should go with this next or if you have any tips on where to find either some beta readers or an editor (or if you are one yourself or would like to be) feel free to drop a comment down below or shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you!

And, since it feels incredibly selfish to go on about myself this long, here’s a picture of a puppy to reward you for reading this far.

Look at this little chonk. LOOK. AT. HIM.